Now former Niners OC Raye says he was surprised by firing

Deposed 49ers offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye said Tuesday he was “a little stunned” when head coach Mike Singletary fired him on Monday morning. “If we’d been 1-2 or 2-1 and even won the (Week 2) Monday night game, I think this conversation wouldn’t be taking place,” Raye told CSN Bay Area. “I think with the level of expectation and, three weeks into the season, the presumed failure that a young team is trying to germinate and find itself is a little, I think, a little rushed.”

The 49ers, with the 31st-ranked offense, fired Raye after a 31-10 loss in Kansas City that dropped their record to 0-3. Singletary fired Raye after initially saying on Sunday that he would remain the coordinator for the rest of the season. Raye told CSN he was out to build the offense the way that Singletary asked him to. “I was carrying out the head coach’s wishes,” Raye said. “I was doing what I was brought here to do under his philosophy he wanted installed. I tried as best I could to carry that out with the quarterbacking and the personnel that we had. I didn’t come in and say, ‘This is my offense, and I’m running this, and if you don’t like it, you can get somebody else.’ I was doing what was given me to do.”